Darkest Friday by Cake&Code 2013-12-17T04:08:00
Pretty typical typing game with the twist that you can only see what to type for a moment, but it's really well done.
Foon → Ludum Dare Explorer → Users → thegoofromspace
| Year | LD | Theme | Game | Division | Rank | Ov | Fu | In | Th | Gr | Au | Co | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 35 | Shapeshift | Close Calls | jam | 1011 | 2.70 | 2.64 | 3.31 | 3.36 | 71 | |||
| 2013 | 28 | You Only Get One | The Battle of Infinite Birds | jam | 239 | 3.14 | 3.09 | 3.45 | 4.09 | 2.91 | 2.55 | 41 |
Pretty typical typing game with the twist that you can only see what to type for a moment, but it's really well done.
A workable game can definitely be made out of this concept, and I had a lot of fun actually.
Extremely slow to start off, and I think something was wrong with the timer in my game. It definitely took it a lot longer than a second to count out a second.
I love the concept though. In the long run, someone could do a lot with a racing game that works like this.
Good game! Pretty well-executed with a unique concept.
Very creative interpretation of the theme! Totally hilarious, too. AND the music is good! Good stuff!
-Story was great.
-The sound and background music were perfect.
-Graphics were very good, but sometimes I would see especially bright stars in the background and think I needed to avoid them 'cause they're the same color as other obstacles.
Overall, this is a completely legitimate, complete game by itself, as-is. You can't say that about many LD entries.
Really great, innovative idea, and I was surprised to even see sort of a Christmas tree forming up there on the right.
"Juan Direction," hah!
Really pretty decent overall, I liked.
You know, I like the idea of killing your enemies with zombies and using the parts to build more zombies. It's a unique take.
It's only connected to the theme by a pun, but I actually think that's funny so it gets a pass for that too.
No sound, though, and actually playing the game wasn't too interesting.
Opens a console window that says this:
Audio Thread running
:
Then it crashes.
Relevant Windows 7 crash information, if you care about that:
Problem Event Name: BEX
Application Name: Lumen.exe
Application Version: 0.0.0.0
Application Timestamp: 52af22ab
Fault Module Name: StackHash_0a9e
Fault Module Version: 0.0.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 00000000
Exception Offset: 00000000
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Data: 00000008
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 0a9e
Additional Information 2: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
Additional Information 3: 0a9e
Additional Information 4: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
Good game! I managed to beat it, but it was a bit frustrating.
I would change the bullets so that they fire whatever direction you're going when they're fully charged, rather than the direction you're going when they start to charge. Sound would have been nice, too. But still, good job!
I liked the idea of the game, and I was impressed with the physics-blocks thht get pushed by a rocket... Then I got stuck in a couple with no way to restart the level. :\
Almost unplayably glitchy; I would figure out how to solve the level, then find myself unable to beat them because I would get stuck in ceilings or just have trouble moving my character, who would randomly reach extreme speeds.
That said, the puzzles were pretty good. This game can be saved!
The controls remind me of Defense of the Ancients or League of Legends, which is kind of an odd choice for a game like this one. Not bad, though.
Pretty fun!
First run, I couldn't figure out how the "boost" was supposed to work. Second run, I figured out that you hold it down (durr!) and actually did a lot worse 'cause I got myself killed early by boosting too much.
I didn't realize you can kill the crystals by running into them as your boost-form until mid-way into my third run. I bet my score would've been a lot higher if I'd known that sooner, heh. I'd like to go back again and see how I do, but for now? High score of 7544, for me.
In any case, my main complaint is that the action's kinda slow. Hazards show up too slowly, and checkpoints are too rare. It would have been a lot better with the same basic gameplay if you'd increased the number of checkpoints and caused them to give you less time, and increased the number of helicopters, made them less durable, and caused them to give you less life. Less waiting for things to happen that way.
Also: nice song! It gets kinda repetitive and the mood of it doesn't really fit the game, but it's not a bad little ditty at all.
I love how the cops run up to distressed citizens and change the Wanted poster to show you that you need to take a new form. I understood what was happening there right away the first time it happened, and that was great.
Really, this is a pretty good game. My only real complaints are 1.) the lack of sound, 2.) the fact that zones of vision aren't very inaccurate, 3.) the fact that the the buttons actually only click when you click the left side (including the Retry button!) and 4.) I suck at this game! My high score's $800, which feels really low.
The way I keep trying shows you did something right, though. Good job!
I think if I were going to expand on this, I would add some features like making it so you can't pick the same person twice within a certain time, and you get less money from people you've picked before. Also, I'd make it so you get more money from risky picks, like picks where people or cops are nearby. As it stands, there's no real pressure on me to go for risky scores beyond my impatience. So many games, so little time...
I had the same problem with another stealth game today, actually. That and the sound thing. Sound is ridiculously important to stealth games.
Man, this is the SECOND politicians-as-secret-reptile-aliens game I've played so far this LD, but I haven't played ONE where you involuntarily turn into a were-whatever at certain times! In fact... the closest to that idea is THIS GAME, 'cause you involuntarily turn back into a reptile!
Anyway: this was a neat idea and it was pretty fun. I only won when I realized I should use the UFO laser to shoot people who wouldn't join up with the reptile party, and having to figure that out made the "win" feel satisfying.
Speaking of making the wins feel satisfying? A "You win!"*screen would've been better than the "You win!" alert, and the game could've used sound, but this was pretty well done overall.
I think if I were to dream up a full release of this, I'd make one where you campaign against other, AI-or-player-controlled politicians. Seems like a fun enough idea to expand on.
Gonna agree with previous commenters: lock the player into the grid. And the chat shows you're already working on the post-LD version, so whatever.
Also, I encountered a weird bug in level 10 that caused the hamburger song to play infinitely.
Speaking of level 10, the first burger doesn't really have a point in level 10, does it? You can just start the stone at the second burger and do the level that way.
It was fun enough for a little bit, but when the puzzles started to depend more on timing than logical thinking the awkward movement system that everyone's complaining about really got in the way.
Funny enough, I loved the saying-things-into-a-mic audio style. Gotta be the laziest way to do it, really, but it was funny. I guess I wouldn't think it's so funny if it were more common, but whatever.
Connection to the theme seems a bit weak, but when I stop and think about it I guess "thin guy to fat guy" fits well enough.
Hm... Well, there were shapes, but where was the shift? ;D
Seriously though, the music in this was pretty nice and the sounds were competent enough, but I don't like this "look." Also, the song for a level shouldn't restart when you die; that just makes it annoying.
Anyway, the game was a lot more challenging than I figured it would be, in a good way. That level where four triangles shoot at you all at the same time was actually harder than the level after it, so maybe the order of those could've been switched, but it ended up being a pleasant surprise that I actually had to think about what I was doing and be careful about how to do it sometimes.
So Shape Quest doesn't really try for anything new, and didn't *quite* fit the theme. Just a plain ol' fun game.
The art was pretty good! Sounds were okay, but a bit tinny.
Last puzzle was tough until I thought to myself, "Hmm... I haven't used my bat-form yet this screen... OH! I should've been looking UP!" which was clever.
Nice Walking Dead reference... Also liked the Married with Children poster. Nice little adventure game, overall.
There's a weird glitch in this where your Big Red form doesn't *quite* shrink enough into the Blue-Balled form, so little bits of Big Red stick out and affect your ability to roll around. Switching back and forth again usually fixes it, but still, that's kinda weird.
Plus, something about the perspective makes it hard to tell where things are. Also, that little jingle that plays is too short and kind of tinny, so it gets annoying really fast. The cannon sounds in the fourth level are the same way.
Despite all that, it fits the theme and basically works as a game. Wouldn't have the phrase "worthy effort" if we didn't need to use it sometimes.
The funny thing is that I REALLY like the idea that's on display here. I think if I were going to make this into a complete game, I would make it so Big Red can move around a bit, and give both Big Red and Blue-Balled separate physical qualities (Big Red sinks, Blue-Balled floats, Big Red moves slowly on teeny little legs, Blue-Balled rolls quickly) and abilities (Big Red can basically use his body as short-range artillery by jumping up and smashing down quickly, Blue-Balled can charge up an attack-roll like Sonic). Get some levels that take advantage of all that together and you've got something that kinda makes me think of Banjo-Kazooie.
So, it wouldn't actually be a bad thing if you took this idea and put the work into it. Worth thinking about!
I really like the idea of spending XP and getting bigger as disdvantages that come with your super-weapon. My only real problem with the super weapon is that it doesn't seem to work all that well. Stuff slips through it and hits you anyway sometimes.
Enemies come out of spawn portals fast enough that it's pretty much like them spawning right on you sometimes, too.
Plus, I don't really get the point of Arcade Mode. You're invincible and you can get infinite points, but for what? What's the goal there?
Chaos Mode is more like what I was expecting, but it's way tougher than Arcade Mode. Kinda weird considering it's also the mode where you're mortal.
Anyway! Pretty sure the highest I got was the one after Glip Glop, but only for a second. Haven't seen Spike yet.
I'd like to see this built on and improved. I would make it so that the spinning blades make you invincible, activate for a set time with each press, and spin much faster. I can think of some other tweaks, but that's the biggest by far.
I did it. The virus was found and all is well now.
I like how the game looks and sounds. The idea of being a little cyber-guy in a cyber-world has always appealed to me in games, and I really like how that fits together here. The song's a bit repetitive and the graphics have a wacky out-of-place line here and there, though.
However, I didn't like being so zoomed-in on a little guy that moves really fast in a world of other little guys that move really fast. Also if you get hit and push restart, you get taken back to the menu instead of just restarting the level, which is weird.
Just slow everything down and zoom it out, and you've got a decent little game here.
I really liked this one! I like how the questions were math questions and the controls were numbers. You could screw up by thinking of the answer to the question when you should be thinking of what key to push. It makes the game kinda like that old "Brain Warp" toy where you had to push a number or color in time.
I'd bet there's actually a lot you can do with this idea if you work on it some more.
Well Done! My score: 225.0.
Very good entry! I like how it's kind of an inversion of Mega Man. Everyone keeps referring to Towerfall, but I haven't played that so for me it felt more like a game called Banana Nababa. The enemies are similar to you though, so I can see the Towerfall even though I've never played it I guess.
My only real complaint is that I played through the whole thing and still don't really know what some of the totems do. I pretty much just stuck with the horse 'cause you always need the extra mobility, making it the best one by far. As such, I had to fight the horse *last* and maybe be weak against the last enemy, hah. At first the fact that you can free totems didn't make sense to me, but against the horse I kinda wished I could poison it and play keep away while doing continual damage. But see, I needed the *horse* to beat the *snake,* so yeaaaah... Really well done.
My only real complaint is something about the bow mechanics.
On the one hand, there's no way to holster your bow without firing an arrow once you've drawn your bow to a certain length. On the other, it's possible to pull your bow out without firing when you don't hold the button down long enough.
When I spam the bow button, it's 'cause I want a lot of arrows to come out and I don't care how far they go. Since you can't normally holster arrows, it felt really weird that you couldn't do that. I guess it's intentional to make players think more about how they control the character, though.
Another thing: the game has kind of a missed opportunity when it comes to collecting the arrows. As it stands, you just get new arrows any time you run out, and your only reason for collecting arrows is just to keep a steady supply. I'm thinking that if you keep an arrow "alive" for a long enough time, it should do bonus damage or something.
Also, you should get some sort of reward like healing or bonus damage for pulling an arrow out of your opponent, 'cause that's possible, and awesome, but difficult. Difficult-but-awesome things should carry rewards. Then again, maybe this is something that a totem gets? I really don't know, which shows how important that problem is.
Anyway! Those are really minor when I think about how overall *good* this was. This could be a complete game really easily, and that game would be pretty good.
Maybe throw some more areas with new sets of totems in there, or make a 2D version of the exploration in Shadow of the Colossus, and you've got it.
WOW. Straight fives across the board.
Seriously: my only real complaint is that it was possible to fall forever, and you have the restart key for that. And yeah, I guess the plane form was kinda useless, but at least you threw a lampshade on that.
Best one I've played so far this LD. WOW. Nice work.
Couldn't get it to work. Just loads an orange screen with some darker-orange squares on it. :\
Like everyone else is saying: nice for 6 hours!
I guess the obvious criticism is that I didn't like how enemies can spawn right on you, but the game wouldn't really have any challenge without that. Zooming out as you get bigger would be nice too, if you're gonna make a post-LD version.
6 hours, though? Good job!
Physics were wacky, which I could forgive if the movement weren't so slow.
I'll be specific, since I see other people complaining: your top swimming speed as a seal is fine, but you need to walk faster, turn faster, and accelerate faster. It would also be nice if you could turn without holding the swim key down, and if your swimming didn't level off when you let go of the swim key.
I love the way the music changes when you're under water though! That was perfect, and I didn't even know I wanted it. 5 for mood.
One last note: the fish you pick up seem a lot better-made than everything else, which is kinda weird. Graphic detail doesn't have to be high, but it *does* have to be consistent. It just seems like there's something off about the whole thing, with that in the picture. I probably would've liked the graphics more if the fish looked worse. Kind of ironic, but there it is.
Couldn't pass level 5 and I almost feel like it's a bug. Are red+yellow supposed to be prioritized as a color combo over red+blue like that? 'cause that's why I had trouble; I was thinking you need to make a bunch of them purple, then make the next row purple, but that second row ended up orange.
Speaking of which! My only real complaint is that your purple didn't really look very purple, and your orange didn't really look very orange. Normally that wouldn't be such a bad thing, but it matters a lot more in a game about combining colors, and I got confused by it for a second there.
Overall: neat little game mechanic! I liked.
Great new mechanic! I can see a lot of different things you can do with this idea of revving a selection of weapons up in a circle around you. Plus: nice sounds and music, and the graphics weren't bad either!
So! Criticisms.
The overheating mechanic felt nice, but I never really found myself overheating.
It got really easy once I realized that you can avoid pretty much all damage by hiding inside the first arc of the enemy's attack. This happened around the same time I got two extra rifles, leading me to get a ton of money in a run that felt like it would never end. Progression and different enemy varieties would've helped a lot. Buuuut that's more of a we-didn't-have-much-time thing, making this a really strong concept for a more fleshed-out release.
In any case, it was fun for a minute there, which is all you can really expect from Ludum Dare games. Good job!
Welp! You can turn into a cat and collect diamonds. Yep.
Didn't really get whether there was any point to being a human or not, and there's no way to get down to street level once you're above it. One way to handle this without much time or effort would've been to fix it so the human falls through everything but the street, whereas only the cat can stand on houses, trees, etc.
Doesn't really matter since the game doesn't have a failure state, though. Sorry to see that you just plain ran out of time. At least now you know how much you need to know before you try again. Better luck next time!
The zip doesn't work. "The compressed (zipped) folder is empty. Before you can extract files, you must copy files to this compressed (zipped) folder." Despite this, it says it's 11.2 MB. Not sure what's going on there.
Loved it! Funny game that I understood easily, and even the puzzles I had trouble with ended up being entertaining when I went, "Ahhh! Of course!"
You even had a little guy show up who didn't actually have a puzzle associated with him as a little joke, which was a nice touch.
Seriously: good job!
WOW! Those graphics! I don't know much about working in 3D, but I didn't know you could DO something like that in only three days! Good job with the sounds and music too. This is practically a professional game already. O_O
It's a bit on the easy side, though. It gets especially boring when you're pretty much at the end of a wave, just trying to mop the last enemies up, and somewhere in Wave 3 I was like, "Eh, I'm not waiting for this to pick up anymore," and died trying to smash some big mushrooms.
I think the easiest way to fix that problem would be to make the field smaller. With a smaller field you'd run into patches of mushrooms you didn't expect more often, and you'd have to make use of the terrain for evasion a lot more.
I'd also fix it so that the damage from poison and the damage from being attacked do different things. Like maybe poison damage makes your health-bar smaller for a while, where getting punched and kicked actually reduces the health in your health-bar. And maybe make it so you *can* smash the big mushrooms, since you won't be able to avoid them with a smaller field, and you get some benefit for it like a bonus multiplier for a while. That way you're incentivized to risk jumping into a crowd of enemies just to smash a big one, send the others flying up, and leap out eating the others. Seems like a fun idea.
Seriously though: it's hard to believe you did those models and textures in the tiny amount of time we have. It's an inspiration. I'm amazed.
There didn't really seem to be much point to this. Your starting structure takes care of the infections on its own and basically provides you with seemingly infinite fuel. So it's like... Wait for the infections to die, make the hallway-of-death bigger with the fuel, and increase your score. The infections don't really have anything that can challenge you.
So I see how it fits with "shapeshift" in theory, but you don't actually *have* to change the shape at all to get infinite fuel, and fuel increases your score on its own. You can just plant a ton of toxins down and get 'em that way. Especially once you close all the air off and you can focus on just one side. Making a bigger cell just increases your score FASTER.
Graphics were a bit rough too. I'm not a big fan of the whole things-in-a-grid-warp-to-the-space-they're-in thing. Show the object in question moving into the new space if you can. Plus, the only way to figure out what increases your score is watching the scoreboard like a hawk. Needs some sounds or "+1" signs or something as indicators.
Still: the thought of a game where you have to beat a swarm with limited intelligence is kinda neat. It would be like a weird take on tower defense.
I guess I picture a strategic puzzle game where you have limited resources against a limited number of highly predictable ants or infection germs that have simple AI which lets them avoid dying the way other ants or germs have died. Or a tower defense game where the enemies get some choice on what path they'll take based on what's happening to other units.
So, I can kinda see what you might've been going for, but this needs a lot of work.
This was great! It's a game with a simple mechanic, and you hit every note you could with those. Levels where you make changing into the wrong shape a hazard, checkpoints where you can change back into the right shape, levels where fitting your shape into a certain place like a keyhole... Heck, you even made like a little font that's based on the look of your levels!
I think one thing I would change is the triangle's wall-jumping. The triangle spins a ton when it jumps anyway, so if you're holding W while in the air as a triangle, I would make it spin and show a little "whirlwind" circle, and fix the triangle's collisions with walls so they're based on a collision radius.
You also could've done something with the colors. Maybe make it so the shapes are random pastels, the walls random dark colors, and so on... But, I dunno, the overall aesthetic was kinda nice really.
Yet another contender for my fave in LD35. What an awesome LD we've been having!
Dear gods, that alarm sound when you win! THAT ALARM SOUND WHEN YOU WIN! ARRRRGH!
But aside from that? Cute little song! And the cats and rabbits weren't too bad. But really, it's just a neat idea that's a bit underdeveloped. Which I can see you know, from the comments below.
I think one thing that would improve the game with very little work is increasing the size of everything on the screen. Like maybe use 3x or 4x pixels. Easier to tell what's going on that way, with the art style you used. Something to think about for next time.
I really liked this one! I like how the larger sizes cause you to go much slower until you're finally being pushed by the current. My only real criticism is that I wish the transformation were gradual, with gradual changes in size and speed, instead of having different "states" for the sprite.
It might seem tough to get that many sprites together, but graphically speaking, if you can find something that'll let you draw an ellipse then that should do the trick. Just change the minor axis appropriately as you inflate or deflate, then draw the fin and eyes onto the shape you get.
And I know I'm probably sounding like a broken record - "This game could use sound!" - but this game could use sound.
Fun, simple mechanic though! I really like the idea behind this one.
One last note: it would've been nice if the fact that there's a current were represented visually. Maybe little bubbles and speed-lines going to the left or something, with little aquatic plants swaying in the direction of the current for extra credit.
Not a bad little idea at all.
Air form's double jump was kind of inconsistent. Sometimes I wouldn't get the second jump for some reason, and at others I could use it to basically climb up walls. That's just a bug though.
Two real complaints about the gameplay:
1. How big Lequestrius is. If he were a lot smaller then the game would be a lot more manageable and fun. As it stands, jumping around with such a big guy just feels kind of awkward. Plus he would look better as a smaller character, in that style.
2. The fire form shoots flames everywhere and makes it hard to see stuff around you. Plus, the flames gave me the false impression that the flames counted as what would burn the pillars. I'll admit I stood around for a little while, wondering how long the pillars take to burn. Since they're just a visual effect, they probably shouldn't cover so much of the screen.
I see "shape" but no "shift."
Not a bad game once I figured out how to play well enough to stay in there for a minute without dying. Once I (finally!) got past 500 I catapulted all the way to my current high score: 1117. Take THAT, Blobo!
So: nice job, but I don't see how it fit the theme.
Not bad, but I didn't like how enemies could spawn right under you and kill you that way. There should be an indicator of where they're going to appear, and for that matter there should be an indicator of when they're going to disappear on you.
Good song, but I'm guessing you didn't write it during the Jam or something 'cause you opted out of Audio.
Hmmm... Not much to say, really. A simple game that kept me entertained long enough to beat it, at least.
For once, I didn't mind the lack of sound effects in a game. Not sure what made this one so special, but there's just something about the feel of it I guess.
The best thing about this one is the level design. When I got the Song of the Ferret I kept running up against a corner and wasn't sure what to do, but I just wandered around and ended up figuring it out. You're lost *just enough* that finding your way feels rewarding instead of easy, but it also isn't frustrating. That's hard to do well, and it's really satisfying to play a game like that.
The way you acquire new shapes and use them to unlock things reminds me of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Well done, but not especially unique. What was nice was the way the combat was dimly possible, but still difficult enough that you're encouraged to sneak past enemies. More stealth games should do it this way.
Easily the best game I've played so far in LD35.
Nicely done!
Loved the fact that this game had both fitting music and good sound - not many entries do - and the visual style was good too.
Complaints:
It's possible to roll the exact same class again. This happened twice for me so it's definitely a thing. If you roll the class you have, the game should just keep re-rolling until you get something with at least one quality that's different.
I don't really see what you get from forging your weapons beyond a risk of death your first couple times, so I'd take that out. I also didn't like how bats kinda move a bit when you're entering the class shift screen.
There doesn't seem to be much point to being Normal. I think I'd change that to Lightning and give Lightning attacks like a chain-lightning effect? Or cause lightning to strike down on you whenever you hit something, effectively working as an attack on any bats that might be above you? Or maybe Stone and give the character a temporary health that goes away if they get hit or class-shift again? Just a couple guesses at what might be fun.
Finally, when you're a Big Wizard your attack rate goes way down, which actually tends to *decrease* your DPS. I'd make it so the attack rate goes UP as a Big Wizard, and DOWN as a Small Wizard. That way there's some point to being a Big Wizard.
I'd also make it so the Wizard's attacks curve upward into the air instead of disappearing, so Wizards have a better chance against bats.
Just some thoughts to keep in mind as you flesh this out. This game is legit, and I really hope you build on it from here.
Not bad! High score: 111.
I like the idea of emulating your enemies mid-combat.
There are some complaints, but they mostly relate to how stuff appears on the screen. One thing I would want to see is some kind of system that shows where enemies are going to stop and start using their attacks. Also, it's hard to tell when a bomb's hit you or not. A visual indication on the enemies of when they've been damaged would be nice too. Maybe show little cracks and things on their shapes?
Now, bugs: the square thing's OP most of the time, as long as the lasers actually hit. Sometimes they don't seem to have any effect. Also, the timing on the hexagon grenades is weird, or maybe there's a bug with firing them. Hard to say, since you don't get it for very long, and things are always really hectic when you finally see one.
I think this could made into a full release pretty easily. Make the graphics and sounds better, and add some other abilities for the different shapes to give them a different feel. For example, the square and hexagon forms might give you bonus points if you kill multiple enemies with one attack. I'd also make it so the Hexagon has a certain number of shots rather than being based on a countdown like the others, and you increase the number of shots you get by killing enemies. Maybe introduce some enemies you can't morph into, so players have to be careful about killing their "ammo."
And that's just a few of the things you can do with this concept. Good thinking!
There were shapes and I shifted them. My score: 4000.
It wasn't obvious how you gain fewer shifts for every match over time, but that *does* happen so that's a factor in the game I wasn't aware of my first time through. For a second there, I thought it was just ridiculously easy and starting playing recklessly. That probably cost me some points. A "difficulty level" editor would've been good.
Anyway, I'm not a huge fan of the whole "you get less to work with as you play but nothing else really happens" thing. I'm not sure what else you would do for progression in a game like this, though. Maybe add new shape types when the player's score goes past a certain point? Or put useless blocks that can't make matches in there?
Some basic sounds would've been nice, and I prefer mouse controls to keyboard controls for this sorta thing so that would've been an improvement too.
Besides all that? It's a puzzle game! Who doesn't like those? Stupid people, that's who. Do we have stupid people here, reading this right now, offended by my dismissal of their stupidity? Probably, but they're stupid! So, who cares? It's a competent enough entry, really.
Fun stuff! A really nice, silly take on the theme.
Anyway, certain forms felt kinda useless or counter-productive compared to others, but maybe I just didn't figure out how to use them well. The controls also felt kinda clunky and weird... Combine those problems and it looks like the game would've benefited from *fewer* forms, doesn't it?
For an example, I didn't really get what the Kalki form is supposed to do; I think there's a bug with it where it's not affected by flowers? Or maybe that's intentional.
But seriously: this would've been better with LESS content! Not often you hear that in a Ludum Dare, is it?
I might've been able to make it past the weird controls if the game didn't go so fast at top speeds. Also, there's a contradictory problem: when you're down to almost-nothing for speed, it takes too long for the game to decide you're done. But I guess I'm okay with that, 'cause it led to an awesome run or two where things just kept going and my statue form got more rupees.
Overall, I think the times when you're stuck with low speeds would've been better if you didn't lose any momentum on the ground except as the statue, which would cause you to lose ALL your momentum when you hit the ground. You could sprinkle the ground with lots of low-power flowers and some high-power ones. You could set the whole thing up so you only lose all your speed from rocks, birds, balloons, or hitting the ground as a statue. Seems like a more fun way to go out.
Anyway, like I said: unique, fun, and funny! What I liked about it made me love it so much that all I really want now is for you to hammer some of the flaws out so I can love it even more. Great work.
neontropics covered it pretty well: decent enough idea, but it all happens so fast it's tough to handle. Even when I figured the game *in theory* I had a lot of trouble *in practice.* The game would be easier if it were easier to jump over tanks after blocking one, which comes down to move speed.
High score: 28. Lowest high score of anyone around here, hah!
Also, I encountered a weird bug where it wasn't possible to jump as a ninja sometimes. Not sure what that was about, but I feel like I could've gotten more than 28 points on that one good run if he'd been jumping...
Screw it, I'll play ONE MORE...
HAH! NEW HIGH SCORE: 50! And NO ninja-jumping bug this time!
Bang, boom, pop!
Jay Eff Kay!
Bang, boom, pop!
Jay Eff Kay!
Bang, boom, pop!
Jay Eff Kay!
Not a lizard, but he could be!
Took me a while to realize that the game was, "Shoot the JFKs who can turn into lizards," and not, "The JFKs can turn into lizards. Shoot them when they do."
Anyway, there was a big problem with this one. I can see my mouse cursor over the game's cursor, so I click where the mouse cursor is sometimes, but the game's cursor doesn't seem to aim there. I ended up shooting some real JFKs when I was aiming for lizard JFKs that way. Or just flat-out missing things I was pointing at.
Nice song, though. And there was a silliness to all the graphics that brought everything together pretty well, really. All together? Pretty good for a cheap joke.
I'm not sure if I really understood what was going on in this one, but I liked the little song and the sounds that went with the endings at least. The food looked kinda weird, but the endings all looked good. That simple, expressive art-style was perfect for the surprise endings.
The interface was clunky though; in particular, it was easy to accidentally pick food up right when you open the fridge door. I also think you could've done something else with the screen transitions to make them smoother, like having the transition go up from the bottom of the screen, then go back down when you're done with it. The endings would still be able to shock you but it wouldn't feel so slow.
I guess the seal-with-a-scarf ending is the "good" ending? I was only able to get three. The other two I saw were kinda scary, especially the one with the heart, but maybe if your goal is to collect hearts then that's the good one.
In summary: nice art, sounds, and music! I guess showing those things off is the real point of a game like this, so, good job with all that.
Fun little puzzle game. I like how it was obvious what each form was supposed to do when I saw the form and the puzzle lay-outs. That's actually tough to manage sometimes, but you nailed that aspect of it without holding the player's hand and giving specific instructions about what each shape can do.
Good job!
Arrrrgh, I was doing fine until the top-down level!
There's this one chicken I just can't get past who has a route that's almost as long as it takes for you to get into and out of your box. Either the box needs to take less time to get into and out of, or that chicken's path needs to be expanded, 'cause sneaking by her with the little baby-steps you need to take is too tedious.
One more complaint! You can't look up or down in the other levels, which would probably have been useful and made things feel a lot better.
All that said: the best parts are the song, and the walk animation on that duck. The song really fits a stealth game, and that duck's walk is perfect. Plus, it's really not too bad. I'd probably have finished the game - even with that one chicken - if there weren't so many others to rate and so little time.
It would've been great to have the little pitter-patter of chicken feet to keep a sense of suspense. Little things like that matter a lot in a stealth game.
Plus, I don't think this game *really* fit the theme. The duck doesn't shape-shift, it just throws a box on itself! I mean, I get what you were going for: the chickens are so stupid they THINK he's shape-shifted into a chicken. But he's not! ;D
Still: what a duck! Great design and animation on that duck! Add some jump animations and stuff, and you can make that duck a star.
My record: 59.9. This game... Well, I can't think of anything I would change about it! It was completely flawless.
Good-looking, stylish art with sounds and music to fit it, all on top of gameplay that's easy enough to understand that you get hooked from the beginning, and tough enough to keep you coming back.
I can even think of a way you could make a full release out of this: go the "Super Hexagon" route and make different levels where lasting a minute causes you to beat the level. Maybe each level could have different effects when you change colors, or different challenges altogether... I dunno, you're the genius.
Great job! I have a new favorite for this year. I didn't expect that to happen again, but WOW. LD35 has some great entries! O_O
So if you eat junk food, you get Happiness but lose Humanity, and if you eat healthy food, you get Humanity back but lose Happiness. Can't lose too much Happiness OR Humanity, or you lose.
It actually ended up being pretty fun to try to balance those in real-time with randomly-generated food, and I like how the graphics matched up with that mechanic.
Two problems. For one, I'm not sure if there's a way to keep your character alive long-term or not; you seem to have a decreasing pool of Happiness and Humanity no matter how you play it. In a game like this, you should be screwed by the increasing difficulty of the game. Stuff like, "foods with more extreme effects," and "a faster conveyor belt." Not a de-facto timer.
Two, I just don't like the look of it. I get it's tough to do better in the time we have to make these, though, so that's not such a big deal.
A fun little mini-game with a funny concept, done mostly-well. I liked it!
robot slip on soapy water
Why'd they even buy those? Let alone give 'em security cards? Anyway, graphics, were okay, but there was no visual indication the robot would slip on the water. I figured somehow the cola was supposed to kill the robot 'til I just tried the soap thing randomly.
Neat idea but buggy. I kept clipping out of the world and things - worst one was when I clipped out of the world in a room where the door was marked "EXIT" implying I was almost at the end. Sadness. :c
I wasn't able to figure that one out when I doubled back and tried it again. You pull the water thing out of the wall and use the soda to...? I dunno. Maybe I'll try it without pulling the water out of the wall first, see what that gets me.
The mood and sounds of this game were the best part. That little song is really well-done.
Okay, wait. I figured that last one out: I thought that it took me on an infinite loop, but I *actually* must've just died as soon as I entered the next room, because this time I ended up in a room marked "lobby" with a security droid.
So that's another complaint: don't let the security droids be right next to the door when you enter a room, and give some audio and visual indication one's got you.
Loved it! Nice music, cute graphics, good stuff!
I clicked for the cute "cuddle fish" 'cause I like puns, and cute things, AND cuttle fish, which made this one seem pretty perfect.
Then I found out it was a guess-the-word-I'm-thinking-of game and cringed a little... But, for one of those, this was well done! Especially for the time frame. You included words that were close to the right one, like "basket" being close to "bowl." A few complaints though.
For one, when you miss one it's possible to get the one you just missed a second time. That shouldn't happen unless it's the very last one; otherwise, the one you just did should be locked out of the order.
For another, it seems like sometimes you can lose life by selecting something, but it turns out to be the wrong thing. And maybe this is just my imagination, but it seems like you lose time with wrong guesses. Neither of those should be in the game.
Anyway, the categories were fun and fun to play. My favorite was the man crossing the river. "Oh, thank you!"
If only I could figure out how to "Shade him!"
So far I've tried parasol, tree, cloud, awning, SHADE ITSELF, house, tent... Even mountain. I was like, "Well that horizon looks pretty bare, maybe a mountain would block the sun enough?" But nope! And I lost life for trying!
A game about making the right crazy guess in time should encourage crazy guesses, instead of punishing them like that. Overall though, I liked it a lot. Good job.
The hitboxes on the hunters seemed bugged. I can only hit them when I'm a bit away from them. Also, the jumping was bugged. Not sure what the problem was, but I couldn't jump a lot of the time unless I changed to human and then changed back.
And on top of all those, the shapeshifting seemed a bit bugged. Sometimes it would take way longer than others. So it's a game with only real features, and all three of those parts are bugged. Ouch. :\
But there's one thing I liked: the way the hunters "rotate" when they turn around. It's nice how that looks good and unique, conveys what's happening, AND gives you time to react to their field-of-view turning around.
It was alright. Could've used sound, could've used some reason to do things quickly instead of thoroughly, like a system that damages you if you don't get enough points in a certain amount of time.
Can't decide if I liked having to change to a shape before I could fire at the shape on the screen or not. The difference between clicking and double-clicking was the only real challenge here, since you might click the wrong number of times sometimes, but somehow that doesn't really feel like a legit challenge to me.
Try to remember put yourself as N/A for the Audio category when you have no sound. And yf you want free sounds really quickly next time you do LD, try this thing out: http://www.superflashbros.net/as3sfxr/
Took me a while to figure out that switching from a jumping red to a bouncing blue mid-air is how you make high-jumps, but once I did I was able to get up to a high score of 407. Y'know, after some practice.
My main criticism is how much speed you lose on slopes, and the fact that I couldn't figure out what the triangle's for. This was pretty well done aside from all that, but my scores felt like they depended more on luck re: what kinds of obstacles show up than anything else.
There's a lot you can do with this, though.
Remove the triangle form, fix the red block so it has the same horizontal speed on all slopes, fix the blue block so it gains even more bounce per landing, and reduce the red block's jump-height, and set some mine-like obstacles that float in the air? You'd have a game about setting up difficult high jumps as the red block without running out of time or accidentally killing yourself with the blue block's bounces.
But really, you can keep it mostly the way it is and improve on the obstacle generation, and you'd have a viable game there, too.
New high score: 462! Anyway, I like the idea of having to shape-shift mid-air and use the shapes together that way. You should think about fleshing this one out! Get a nice post-LD going.
Like many others, I couldn't even figure out how to play this one. A bunch of enemies mob me, I push a power looking for the one that will help, press space, and die. No bueno.
I think widening the view you have of what's going on, making everything happen more slowly, and making sure very few enemies spawn in the beginning of the game would help with all that. As it stands, I've given it multiple shots just to get oriented and I just can't.
It's a shame, 'cause I can see what you were going for and I like the idea. Better luck next time.
I got to 14,480 before I decided I was getting bored and stopped. Basically I hung out in a corner where nothing was likely to spawn around me, dropped sharks whenever I could, and just used Q and W to clear out lines of zombies with the occasional E to run in the center of groups that survived.
Models were okay I guess except that the shark looked more like a whale to me, especially given its size. Also the Elephant Stomp looked more like a crocodile head or something. On the way up in score, the screen got more and more shakey, which was really weird.
Didn't really jive with the theme, either.
Could be good if there were more going on with it difficulty-wise, though. You got all the basics down right, except sound. I guess maybe make more enemy types that unlock as you continue? Like maybe a tough enemy that can only be killed by the E or R, a fast enemy that can overtake you if you run away from it, etc.
WOW. The controls on this were tight even if they were hard to figure out sometimes, the graphics and sounds were AMAZING, and it all led to a pretty fun game! Seriously: not just one but TWO types of mech? Plane was really strange, but yeah, awesome!
Also, the rotate-around-a-little-planet gameplay was unique. Only complaint is that the game tends to crash on me, which ruins the fun a bit.
To be clear... You CAN'T kill that big stompy thing, right? That's like the unstoppable hazard that drives all the action? Or was I just playing wrong this whole time? By, for example, not playing as the plane? XD
Great job. I'm seriously amazed.
High score: 3453, speed 15.
The graphics were nice, but the shapes didn't look like they were really on the "road." Would've been better with just a single line of lights right under the shape instead of what you had, IMO.
The sound and look really fit each other perfectly though, and the game's a pretty fun idea. Nice work.
Great visual style and audio that led to a really unique game. I guess my only problem with it is how hard it was to tell what the tentacles were going to do, making it really tough to hit the boss. I make that sound like a small problem, but it's really a pretty big one, since waving your tentacles around is all you do in the game.
For a while there I fooled myself into thinking I had found a system for hitting the boss reliably, but I could basically only hit it by accident. Made things pretty frustrating.
I think this idea could really work for a full release if you had a predictable system for how the tentacles move.
For example, if the tentacle's far enough away from the place where it's supposed to go, it could do a straight thrust, but if it's really close it would whip. OO, even better: hold the button for a straight thrust to a certain area, otherwise the tentacle does a whip motion that's weaker. If the mouse is close enough and you do a whip motion, that's a weak but rapid-fire attack. There should also be a visual display for hit-boxes, if you work on this any more. You would probably also need to be able to move around under your own power.
Have to admit I don't see how it fit the theme. I guess the tentacles are shapes? And they shift around?... I dunno, something like that?
Anyway, I'd want to see how this idea develops. Really original aesthetic and gameplay, and it's hard to describe why but they kinda seem like a match for each other.
Good job! Just fix those tentacles!
Welp, that was easy.
The music and art were both pretty good! I wish there were more to it than just, "You're immune to monsters when you take their form, and also you get attacked by the other two kinds if they're handy. Wander around a bit."
For example, different monsters could attack each other instead of just you. Also, the different monsters could move in different ways, which would give them a chance to actually catch you unless you can figure their patterns out.
I really like the ideas that are coming out of this one, and I'm finding myself going, "This game is something that should be fleshed out more," to a lot of them. This is another case of that. I'd go for it if I were you.
I like how you could score a point off any point of the field, rather than needing to send it through a certain goal.
The graphics were simple, but juicy. The "wakes" that came off the paddles were a nice effect. That font was a bit hard to read, but it's not like you wrote an essay in it.
I think the game had announcements for a lot of things that you didn't really need announcements for, like "Reverse rotation!" I would just make it so the field slowly reverses on its own. 'cause players can handle that, y'know?
Not really sure what it adds to the game to have the field change like that though, except that it lets you follow the theme. At the end of the day, it doesn't affect your paddle's movement much, which is what really matters. The shapes would have more impact if the playing field had other features, like solid barriers at every angle. Triangles would have a few, large barriers and shapes with more sides like octagons would have lots of smaller ones.
Really though, a shifted shape is a shifted shape, and a fun, well-made game is a fun, well-made game. Nicely done!